museums and libraries at Alexandria with books, instruments, and works of art; and, above all, to withdraw the minds of the more contemplative from the dangerous pursuits of magic and the contemptible deceptions of astrology. The reigns of Claudius and of Aurelian were slightly agitated by the pretensions of Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra, who, as a descendant of the Ptolemies, announced herself the sovereign of Egypt. Her army advanced to the frontiers, and even gained some advantages over the Romans; but her troops being at length steadily opposed by the legions of Syria, she sustained a total defeat, and was carried captive to Rome.

When, at a later period, the Emperor Probus visited Egypt, he executed many considerable works for the splendour and benefit of the country. The navigation of the Nile, so important to Rome itself, was improved; and temples, bridges, porticos, and palaces, were constructed by the hands of his soldiers, who acted by turns as architects, as engineers, and as husbandmen. On the division of the empire by Diocletian, Egypt was reduced to a very distracted state. Achilleus at Alexandria, and the Blemmyes, a savage race of Ethiopians, defied the Roman arms. The emperor, resolved to punish the insurgents, opened the campaign with the siege of Alexandria. He cut off the aqueducts which supplied every quarter of that immense city with water, and pushed his attacks with so much caution and vigour that, at the end of eight months, the besieged submitted to the clemency of the conqueror. The fate of Busiris and Coptos was even more melancholy than that of Alexandria. Those proud cities, the former distinguished by its antiquity, the

latter enriched by the passage of the Indian trade, -were utterly destroyed by the arms of the enraged Diocletian.*

The introduction of Christianity was marked by repeated outrages among the people, and even by such commotions as threatened to shake the stability of the government. The adherents of the old superstition resisted, on some occasions, the destruction of their temples and the contemptuous exposure of their idols; while, in more than one instance, the Christian ministers, with a larger share of zeal than of discretion, insulted their opinions, and even set at defiance the authority of the civil magistrate when interposed to preserve the public peace. But, after the conversion of Constantine, the power of the church was effectually exerted to co-operate with the provincial rulers in supporting the rights of the Empire, and in repelling the inroads of the barbarians from the east and south. Nor was it till a new religion arose in Arabia, and gave birth to a dynasty of warlike sovereigns, that Egypt, wrested from its European conquerors, was forced to receive more arbitrary masters, and submit to a severer yoke. This era, however, constitutes the point in our historical retrospect at which we announced our intention to interrupt the narrative, until we shall have laid before the reader an account of the arts, the literature, and commerce of the ancient Egyptians.

* Gibbon, vol. i. chap. 6.

F

CHAPTER IV.

Mechanical Labours of the Ancient Egyptians.

The Magnitude of Egyptian Edifices-Their supposed Object connected with the Doctrine of the Metempsychosis -Proposal made to Alexander the Great-Lake Mœris; Its Extent-The Narrative of Herodotus; Supported by Diodorus and Pomponius Mela-Opinion that the Nile originally flowed through the Valley of the Dry River-Facts stated by Denon; And by Belzoni-Lake Moris not a Work of Art-The River of Joseph and Canals connecting it with the Nile.-Pyramids; Account by Herodotus; Researches of Davison; of Caviglia; of Belzoni; Dimensions of Pyramids-Sphinx; Exertions of Caviglia-Monolithic Temple-Tombs-Reflections.

THE history of Egypt presents nothing more wonderful than the magnitude and durability of the public works which were accomplished by her ancient inhabitants. Prodigal of labour and expense, her architects appear to have planned their structures for the admiration of the most, distant posterity, and with the view of rendering the fame of their mechanical powers coeval with the existence of the globe itself. It has been suspected, indeed, that the omnipotent spirit of religion mingled with the aspirations of a more earthly ambition in suggesting the intricacies of the Labyrinth, and in realizing the vast conception of the Pyramids. The preservation of the body in an entire and uncorrupted state

during three thousand years, is understood to have been connected with the mythological tenet that the spirit by which it was originally occupied would return to animate its members, and to render them once more the instruments of a moral probation amid the ordinary pursuits of the human race. The mortal remains, even of the greatest prince, could hardly have been regarded as deserving of the minute care and the sumptuous apparatus which were employed to save them from dissolution, had not the national faith pointed to a renewal of existence in the lapse of ages, when the bodily organs would again become necessary to the exercise of those faculties from which the dignity and enjoyment of man are derived. There can be no doubt, therefore, that Egypt was indebted to the religious speculations of her ancient sages for those sublime works of architecture which still distinguish her above all the other nations of the primitive world.

It must, at the same time, be acknowledged that, in all countries comparatively rude, vastness of size takes precedence of all other qualities in architectural arrangement. As a proof of this, it will not be denied that even the Pyramids sink into insignificance when compared with an undertaking proposed by Stesicrates to Alexander the Great. Plutarch relates that this projector offered to convert Mount Athos into a statue of the victorious monarch. The left arm was to be the base of a city containing ten thousand inhabitants; while the right was to hold an urn, from which a river was to empty itself into the sea. But our object in this chapter is not to describe the fanciful dreams of a panegyrist, but to give an account of works which

were actually effected, and of which the remains continue at the present day to verify at once the existence and the grandeur.

We shall begin with Lake Moris, which, although, upon the whole, it owes more to nature than to art, is nevertheless well worthy of notice, both for its great extent and for its patriotic object. Herodotus, our best authority for its original appearance, informs us that the circumference of this vast sheet of water was three thousand six hundred stadia, or four hundred and fifty miles,-that it stretched from north to south,-and that its greatest depth was about three hundred feet. He adds that it was entirely the product of human industry; as a proof of which, he states, that in its centre were seen two pyramids, each of which was two hundred cu-. bits above and as many beneath the water, and that upon the summit of both was a colossal statue, placed in a sitting attitude. The precise height of these pyramids, he concludes, is therefore four hundred cubits, or six hundred Egyptian feet.

The waters of the lake, he continues, are not supplied by springs: on the contrary, the ground which it occupies is of itself remarkably dry; but it communicates by an artificial channel with the Nile, receiving, during six months, the excess of the inundation, and, during the other half of the year, emptying itself back into the river. Every day, during the latter period, the fishery yields to the royal treasury a talent of silver,-whereas, as soon as the ebb has ceased, the produce falls to a mere trifle. "The inhabitants affirm of this lake, that it has a subterraneous passage westward into the Libyan Desert, in the line of the mountain which